It’s
hard to believe that the Winter Holidays Music Festival has been running
for years and we never before got around to Kate Bush, the revered British
singer song writer, dancer, and producer. Her unique four octave voice,
brilliantly original lyrics, and performance style integrating
her vocals, instrumental talents, and modern dance made
her one of the biggest stars in the United Kingdom. Far less known in America, she is something
of cult favorite with indie musicians and art rock fans.
Born
as
Catherine Bush on July 30, 1968 in Bexleyheath, Kent, in the
greater London metropolitan area, she began writing original music
at 11 years old and released her debut album, The Kick Inside at
just 19 years old. It included her first
British #1 hit Wuthering Heights.
She released only 10 original albums through 2011, all but one of them
ranking in the top five. Sixteen
of her singles were in the U.K. top twenty.
Bush
only toured once for six weeks in Britain and Europe, in 1978, in
an elaborate concert/performance art piece she wholly conceived. It exhausted her and she could never be
coaxed back out on the road again.
She appeared in sporadic television broadcasts, specials,
and charity performances like Comic Aid. After her first four albums there were long
gaps between new recordings including four years between 1985 and ’89 and
six years between 2005 and ’11. She attributed
the gaps to prioritizing her family and denied that her perfectionism
was to blame.
She
remains an intensely private person and has a reputation as something of
a recluse. None-the-less she has
been showered with honors for her bold work including the Brit Award for
Best Female artist, the Ivor Novello Awards, and has been nominated
for the Billboard Music Awards, the Grammy Awards, the
MTV Video Music Awards, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rolling
Stone ranked Hounds of Love #68 on their list of
the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and in 2021 Running Up That
Hill was also listed at #60 in the
magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. She is listed #46 on
VH1’s 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll. She was named
a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in
the 2013 New Year Honors for services to music.
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| Bush is enjoying new fame with the re-release of Running Up That Hill which was featured on the TV spook series Stranger Things. |
Bush
was discovered by a whole new generation, most of whom assumed
she was a new artist when Running Up That Hill was featured in
season 4 of the cable series Stranger Things this past May. Re-released as a single it shot to #1 in
Britain—a 43 year gap since her last chart topper—and #3 on the Billboard
Hot 100 in the U.S. The success has
spurred revived interest in her body of work on both sides of the Atlantic.
Today we feature December Will Be Magic Again from her breakthrough year 1979 TV Christmas special.
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